[sarex] Re: NEW RECORD Set Via ISS

Sun Nov 2 13:04:52 PST 2008

Mir Packet distance, 4300 km, 2600 Miles

Dave Larsen N6C0 and I Miles WF1F were the system operators for the Russian Space Station Mir (1994 –2001).

Dave lives in a small town in California called Pine Grove.
At that time, I lived in a town called Billerica in Massachusetts.

Each night Dave and I would get on the Mir frequency (145.550 or 145.985 ) and upload traffic to the Mir crew, School Schedules, phone patches etc.  We would also handle NASA message to the Americana crewmembers.  Dave would get access to Mir first and if he was not successful in getting the message up, I would be on line to finish uploading the rest of the traffic.  Most of our work took place between midnight and 5am local time.

Every few days there would be a very small opening in which I could see packets coming down from Mir to Dave’s Station N6CO.  The link between us only lasted about 30 seconds. We decided to try a two-way link, on a few of those occasions we were successful and were able to exchange a few Unproto packets to between each other.  We did not use APRS, we just used simple Unproto packets.

Each station was running an Oscar Class station with 12-dBd+ antenna Gain, ERP 1200-4800 watts.
The Space Station Mir was Running the following:
Kenwood TM-733 at 5 watts.
Kantronics KPC-9612 Packet system.  
Antenna was a Larsen Dual Band Mobile antenna mounted outside on Mir.

My rough calculations come out to be approximately 4,300 km or 2600 statute miles.

Ill have to dig through my Mir packet logs to see if we can narrow down dates of those contacts.

Congradulations on a new ISS record.

73 Miles

ps, hey N6CO, are your antennas still up?

--- On Sat, 11/1/08, Roger Kolakowski <rogerkola at aol.com> wrote:

> From: Roger Kolakowski <rogerkola at aol.com>
> Subject: [sarex] Re: NEW RECORD Set Via ISS
> To: "jeff" <kb2m at comcast.net>, sarex at AMSAT.Org
> Date: Saturday, November 1, 2008, 9:39 PM
> I found one reference that mentioned that the ISS
> "circle of visibility" was
> around 5000 kM so your record of 3711 nautical miles sounds
> hard to beat.
> 
> Nice catch!
> 
> I think that Scott has the possibility of WAS via ISS from
> his location
> though ;-)
> 
> Ahh the benefits of living on the coasts...
> 
> Roger
> WA1KAT
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "jeff" <kb2m at comcast.net>
> To: <sarex at AMSAT.Org>
> Sent: Saturday, November 01, 2008 9:01 PM
> Subject: [sarex] Re: NEW RECORD Set Via ISS
> 
> 
> > I worked England via ISS packet. The picture of my
> D-700 screen on my
> > website shows a distance of  3711 for the contact I
> had with G8LMY, FM29pe
> > to IO91vi.  A quick check shows the distance from Hi
> to Ca as around 2500
> > miles. Can anyone beat 3711 NMI?
> >
> > 73 Jeff kb2m
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Ransom, Kenneth G. (JSC-OC)[BAR]"
> <Kenneth.G.Ransom at nasa.gov>
> > To: "Scott- Extingflame"
> <extingflame at hotmail.com>
> > Cc: <sarex at AMSAT.Org>
> > Sent: Saturday, November 01, 2008 6:04 PM
> > Subject: [sarex] Re: NEW RECORD Set Via ISS
> >
> >
> > >I have no information from any other attempts and
> am unaware of any
> > >"records" for this sort of activity so I
> can't say if yours would be a
> > >record or not. Congratulations on the success of
> your efforts.
> > >
> > > Personally, I made a contact with VE1DX in Nova
> Scotia (from Houston)
> > > during a similar low elevation pass but never
> took the time to make the
> > > point to point distance calculations. Not sure
> how many other long shot
> > > contacts are out there that were never reported.
> Maybe your notice will
> > > prompt others to provide examples of other long
> distance contacts via
> ISS
> > > in various modes.
> > >
> > > Kenneth - N5VHO
> > >
> > > ________________________________
> > >
> > > From: Scott- Extingflame
> [mailto:extingflame at hotmail.com]
> > > Sent: Sat 11/1/2008 3:35 PM
> > > To: sarex at AMSAT.Org; Ransom, Kenneth G.
> (JSC-OC)[BAR]
> > > Subject: NEW RECORD Set Via ISS
> > >
> > >
> > > Today at 1803 UTC, Ron AH6RH and I made the FIRST
> packet QSO/exchange
> via
> > > ISS's digipeater RS0ISS.
> > > We had several pings on my 1 minute 20 second
> mutual visibility pass
> > > between us. See http://www.ariss.net/
> > >
> > > Ever since ISS packet/voice was activated, I was
> looking for a partner
> on
> > > the east side of the Big Island
> > > of Hawaii to do this. I sent out blind emails to
> all hams in the area.
> > > Looked at packet from Hawaii etc...
> > > Finally about 3 years ago, I met up with Ron,
> AH6RH who shared my goal.
> > > For the past few years we have been
> > > trying to make this first contact. Between ISS
> packet being off the air,
> > > and limited times to try with work etc,
> > > it finally became a reality today! I did my
> victory DX dance when Ron
> > > called me from Hawaii screaming in excitement!
> > >
> > > Thanks to ARISS for it's support of amateur
> radio on the ISS.
> > >
> > > 73, Scott WA6LIE
> > > CM96eq
> > >
> > > Kenneth,
> > >
> > > Can you confirm this as a new distance record?
> > >
> > > ----
> > > Sent via sarex at amsat.org. Opinions expressed are
> those of the author.
> > > Not an AMSAT member? Join now to support the
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> >
> > ----
> > Sent via sarex at amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those
> of the author.
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> 
> ----
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